Most surviving military
installations in Molise have been transformed and adapted to changing defensive
requirements, and often made suitable for residential functions. The most common
functional elements are the central courtyard and sometimes the square that
fronts the main entrance, rainwater cisterns (more seldom wells), warehouses for
equipment and stores (especially corn but also oil and wine), ovens and chimneys
(for heating but especially for the kitchens), latrines, closets and built-in
wardrobes, basement or underground rooms, residential rooms and, occasionally,
the chapel. Underground or overhead walkways (the walkway that joins the palace
to the chapel of S.Gennaro at Lucito is one example) were frequently built to
connect separate buildings. The convention of situating the rooms reserved for
the lord’s residence on the first floor, while the upper floors provided
lodgings for the servants seems to have been followed. In the least altered
buildings the functional elements typical of fortification architecture are
still recognisable, though some of the original arrow slits have often been
widened and transformed into windows. In some cases the old military structures,
though “covered” with new plaster, flooring and false ceilings, still
preserve unaltered all the characteristics of the original architecture.
Investigation of ground-floor and underground rooms often disclose very
interesting remains of old walls and evidence of stratigraphies of the upper
levels that are of great documentary significance.